Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Train Gems

30 day prompt.
From your morning stop at the outback outpost of Manguri, you’ll venture into the weird and wonderful opal mining township of Coober Pedy, where more than half of the residents live underground. Here, you’ll enjoy a day of discovery, and a gourmet lunch in the most unique of locations: underground. Dinner is served back on the train where you can enjoy a nightcap as your journey continues.

We'e going to get dirty today. But maybe we'll score an opal.

Opal?

MY favorite opals are the ones with stars in them. Some opals are more rare than others. Some are worth more than others. The Aurora Australis is valued at about $1,000,000. I started looking at the science of gemology especially as it pertained to Opals. Soon I realized that it is a very serious subject. To understand a lot about it will take hours and days of study. I gleaned these particular facts about Opals. Opals are valued by their shape of cut and size. Shape and size are a factor in the way light disperses around the stone, Overlaying light rays give the stone its magical affect. You may become fascinated by a particular stone when you see how it looks to your eye.

Fiction:

A piece of rock fell from the dusty rocky mountain as Purdy was stealthily moving away from the small mining village. If he could get away quickly he would be able to make good time on the camel trail that led into the desert. He stopped to pick up the rock. If he was followed it might come in handy as a weapon. Grasping the stone in his hand he trotted down the trail. The heat of the day would help cover his movements. Most people were resting until the sun went down enough to resume a scheduled work day.

Purdy was so glad he had brought lots of water. He trudged all day until he saw the greenery of the landscape as it hit the edge of the desert trail. He had fingered the rock in the palm of his hand all day. Now, he was pretty sure he would not need it. No one seemed to be following him. When he reached the wooded green section of the trail he sat down to rest and watch the desert trail that led to the mining camp. No one else was out and you could see the heat shimmer across the trail that led to this part of the landscape. Behind him he could hear the water as it fell from cool rocks into a river. All he had to do was follow the river. It would be cooler and well traveled. His escape was assured.

He looked down at the rock in his hand. As he rubbed it in his palm, mountain grit and dirt began to crumble off it. In the end, pieces broke off and fell to the ground. As the mountain detritus crumbled away, it left a veined stone which caught the light and sparkled with color. Purdy held it up toward the sun. He rubbed it and exclaimed as the light danced and whirled causing him to draw in his breath as the stone produced a magical aura. "What have I found?" he exclaimed.

Back to the Ghan:

Some of the things we experienced as a group when the Ghan stopped at telegraph station were the wonderful sights of the starry night. It has been along time since I experienced the clear vision of an immense starry sky. We ate so well at the barbecue. We had choices of sausages, burgers, steak, fresh baramundi,served with barbecue sauces, beet root, avocado, tomatoes and breads. By the way, baramundi means large scaled silver fish, it is a sea bass. I wonder if you can get this in Canada or the North East parts of the USA coast?

I was surprised by the fact that I like Vegemite since it has a reputation about its flavor not being sweet. I like salty foods. I ate it on bread with avocado.

One thing I was surprised about and very happy with is the use of beet root in sandwiches. I think I might try this at home since I really like beet root. I use to go out into my grandmothers garden and pull the young beets, clean the dirt off and munch on one. Not a favorite thing to do when grandad was around but grandmother did not mind. Pickled beets are pretty good too.

I like coconut but I'm not fond of it slivered. Nevertheless, I had lamington for desert with a cup of green tea. It's like a sponge cake covered in chocolate or raspberry sauce coated with coconut shavings. They served a big bowl of TIMTAMS and encouraged us to take a few with us for the journey so now I have a stash of them in my backpack for the rest of the journey. TIMTAMS are a packaged chocolate biscuit made by Arnotts.

I'm especially amazed by the underground society at Coober Pedy. I really admire the inoventive ways to keep cool. The rooms are remarkable.

Back on The Ghan and away we go. I'm going to sleep awhile need to catch up.